Making Money While You Sleep

Clients often ask me, "Can you actually make a living with an e-business and make money while you sleep?"

Possibly, if you execute well. Here's my current favorite approach:

1. Identify a specific type of business--for example, financial planning or solar energy installation-- that you have true expertise in or that you could acquire by reading and by interviewing a number of successful people in that business. You might even be able to convince (or hire) them to write an article on the highly specific information needed to succeed in that business.

2. Create a hierarchy of truly value-added products:
a. A free content-rich article or teleconference.
b. A $15-$40 product such as an e-book.
c. A $200-$300 complete kit with e-books, CDs, workbooks, etc.
d. A one-day, weekend, and/or five-day intensive/bootcamp for $200 to $2000.
e. Ongoing coaching at $100 to $300 an hour.

3. Market those products and services through trade publications, Google adwords, teleseminars, and continually providing new, valuable free articles on your site so the site's Google rankings are high.

Dan Janal sent this example along to me: "Rory Fatt, who owns Restaurant Marketing Systems has more than 100 restaurant owners each paying $10,000.00 yearly to be in his top-level coaching program; nearly 4,000 buying and using his advertising, marketing, and business kits - information products ranging in price from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, and subscribing to his newsletter; nearly 500 attend his annual multi-day conference; and he also provides pre-fab websites, a loyalty points program (like a frequent flyer program), new mover mailings done for them, and other products and services. These products are sold using print ads in trade journals, direct mail, websites and email, and teleseminars. It is a multimillion-dollar a year business built from scratch in about five years. Rory has only two employees, and he rarely visits his office, takes a lot of time off to be with his family, and takes at least two extend ed vacations a year. And maybe what's most significant is this: Rory has never owned, operated, or managed a restaurant."

I am not an expert in online business, so if this post piques your interest, do not simply follow its advice. Start by reviewing these blogs: Moneymaker and How to Make Money Online for Beginners.